Anne T. Dunphy Newsletter
October 5, 2025
School Photo Orders
School Photo orders were due on Friday. If you have not placed your order yet, please do it ASAP at the link below!
HRHS Youth Sports Night... THIS Friday!
We hope that ATD families will consider coming out to celebrate HRHS' Youth Sports Night! This is a great opportunity for families to engage with our district middle and high school facility, and cheer on our local sports teams!
Playground Mural!
We are excited to announce that the Massachusetts Cultural Council has awarded ATD a Creative Experience Grant for artist, Kim Carlino, to design and paint a mural for our playground with our school community.
Mrs. Dias is seeking volunteers to guide our young artists to work alongside Kim. Please use the link below to volunteer to help with the painting during the school day on October 22nd or 24th. The reveal is planned during the evening of our Harvest Feast!
Before School Care Program
We are so excited to announce an option for Before School Care for our families with students in K-6. Our program will begin next week - October 15th. (There is no school Mon/Tues of that week). Program information, guidelines, and registration information can be found at the link below.
We are open to feedback about this new structure as we move forward and will stay in touch with families about any changes that may need to be made along the way.
Harvest Feast
Friday, October 24th
5:00-7:00
For families new to ATD, The Harvest Feast is a beloved tradition celebrating our school garden and the ATD community! Each class makes a dish based on our garden or local produce, and we ask families to bring food to add to the potluck table (there are always lots of yummy options!). The Harvest feast includes the potluck, the silent auction (the PTO's biggest fundraiser of the year) and pie sale, and lots of family fun.
Silent Auction
- One of the evening's fun events is the Silent Auction. Past items have included jewelry, honey and homemade jams, hand knits, art, costumes, gift certificates to local favorites, etc. to support various school programs and activities that the PTO helps support and fund.
- If you have something to offer, please click the link below.
- Silent auction questions or donations astrollama@gmail.com
Classroom Cooking!
As part of the Harvest Feast, each classroom prepares a dish make with ingredients from the garden. These dishes are prepared during the school days leading up to Harvest Feast.
Interested in cooking with students, reach out to Sherrie Marti sherriemarti@yahoo.com
National School Custodian Day! THANK YOU!
Happy School Custodian Appreciation Day to the best three we could ask for! Thanks to Mr. O’Brien, Mr. Todd, and Ms. Tara for all they do to take care of us!
On Thursday, we took on some of their jobs to give them a well-deserved break!
Hello from the Reading Room!
The 2025-2026 school year has started off with eager readers participating in reading assessments with us. We’ve been looking closely at decoding accuracy, fluency, and comprehension skills using a variety of assessment tools including Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) and Qualitative Reading inventory (QRI). Teachers are also sharing observations from their classrooms. All of this information helps us offer suggestions for specific skills that students will practice in the classroom.
Reading intervention groups started this week. Sessions in the reading room are tailored to the learning needs of each student and often include multi-sensory activities and games. We are excited to be using new “readable” Geodes books with students in the early grades. These books include a variety of genres and content areas and the decodability of text is 80% or higher, making them accessible to students. Geodes books are aligned with the science of reading and will complement our Wilson FUNdations phonics curriculum well. Students in the upper grades will be reading a variety of high interest text including some new chapter books.
We look forward to reading with your students this year! Please feel free to reach out with any questions about our work and your students’ progress.
Kris Pisano & Heather Punska
Reading Teachers
Source to Sea Clean Up
Thanks to Ryan Pickard and Gina Wyman who organized a crew of ATD volunteers to help at last week's Source to Sea Clean Up event! Our crew is pictured below with Representative Lindsay Sabadosa.
Musical Reveal Movie Night
Grades 4-6
SAVE THE DATE - Friday October 17th 6-8pm MUSICAL REVEAL MOVIE NIGHT!
Get a sneak peek at what this spring's musical will be!!
NOTE: This event is reserved only for 4th, 5th, and 6th graders, and their families, as they are the students who work on the show. Keep an eye out for a paper invite next week.
If you would like to operate the popcorn machine, pass out snacks during intermission, or help out in another way, please write to williamsburgpto@gmail.com
Join the Williamsburg School Committee!
Dates to Remember
October 10: HRHS Youth Sports Night
October 13: Indigenous Peoples' Day, No School
October 14: No School, Teacher Professional Development
October 15: School Committee, 5:30
October 16: Kindergarten Families to Fletcher Farm
October 16: 5th grade to Historic Deerfield
October 17: Musical Reveal Movie Night, 6:00-8:00
October 22: Playground Mural Painting
October 24: Playground Mural Painting
October: 24 Harvest Feast, 5:00-7:00
Contact Us
Email: sjenkins@hr-k12.org
Website: www.burgyschool.org
Location: 1 Petticoat Hill Road, Williamsburg, MA, USA
Phone: (413) 268-8421
Facebook: Williamsburg Schools